"That our national debt has reached more than £1 trillion simply shows the unsustainable level of spending this country built up over the past few years, and shows why it is critical for our nation's future that we deal decisively with the deficit," they said.

"Today's figures show that we are making good progress, with borrowing over £11bn lower than in the same period last year."

The ONS said that the Treasury's coffers had been partially boosted by the increase in VAT and the levy placed on the banks.

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The Royals cost us about £38 million pounds a year. Quite what Her Majesty thinks about the national debt is unknown.

The London 2012 games will cost about £8bn in total - but with a trillion pounds you'd be able to hold one every year for the rest of the century and still have some change.

With the average home costing about £240,000 in Britain, you'd be able to buy every house in London with the national debt. If you had it.

That's the brand spanking new iPhone 4s at £499. Mind you a trillionaire would probably get a gold-plated bling one.

It cost the Blair government £780m to build, the idea of a thousand of them popping up seems frightening, given they struggled to sell of just one of them.

That's kilo bars, if you're feeling pedantic. Tories like to point out that while we have plenty of debt, we haven't much gold because Gordon Brown sold much of it in the late 1990s

Each new academy school costs about £25 million to build, according to the government

The most recent hospitals to be built in Britain cost about £500m apiece.

And that's the most expensive. Roman Abramovich's yacht, thought to be the priciest on the planet, cost the oligarch a reported £485m

The US Federal reserve estimates there's $40 trillion in cash in circulation across the globe.